Wednesday, June 30, 2010

The president, his friends and advisers talk endlessly about the circumstances they inherited as a way of avoiding responsibility for the 18 months for which they are responsible. But they want new stimulus measures—which is convincing evidence that they too recognize that the earlier measures failed.

EXACTLY! Instead of blaming Bush, get up and do something about it! Kind of like Gov. McDonnell did!

Note the deletion of the word “not” in the original statement, which originally read (emphasis mine), “This procedure, however, may not be the best or most appropriate procedure in a particular circumstance to save the life or preserve the health of a woman, and the doctor should be allowed to make this determination.”

This has to be seen to be believed - Kagan's handwritten notes cross out the word "not" so as to completely change the sentence!

Here's Mr. Obama on September 18, 2008, not long after the economic collapse: "Senator McCain's first answer to this economic crisis was - get ready for it - a commission. That's Washington-speak for 'we'll get back to you later.'"

"Folks, we don't need a commission to spend a few years and a lot of taxpayer money to tell us what's going on in our economy," he continued. "We don't need a commission to tell us gas prices are high or that you can't pay your bills. We don't need a commission to tell us you're losing your jobs. We don't need a commission to study this crisis, we need a President who will solve it - and that's the kind of President I intend to be."

And...today there was a meeting of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform - they'll get back to us later.

Under the Constitution, the president doesn’t have a right to stack the Senate with his own picks. Filling vacancies is up to the states. This ensures that Congress will be an independent body, unlike the Chicago City Council, where Mayor Daley gets to appoint replacements for jailed aldermen.

Isn't this the third time Obama has gotten involved in attempting to determine who gets a Senate seat? Sestak? Romannoff? Anyone?

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Judicial liberals have been discovering the virtues of legal precedent now that conservatives are finally winning a few cases at the Supreme Court, but in yesterday's major gun rights case that all went out the window. The four liberal Justices rejected a 2008 landmark precedent as well as one of their own bedrock Constitutional principles.

Waiting for our administration was a Virginia budget with an unprecedented $4.2 billion deficit, a politically divided General Assembly and the toughest economy in modern Virginia history. ... Remarkably, even in these tough times, we will likely realize a small budget surplus at the end of this fiscal year.

Funny, Gov. McDonnell doesn't point fingers and complain about the $4.2B budget deficit HE inherited. Instead, he fixed it!

...The short answer is that every agency — each with its own particular bureaucratic agenda — was able to veto each aspect of any plan to fight the spill, with the unintended consequence that nothing stopped the oil from destroying hundreds of miles of wetlands, habitats, beaches, fisheries and recreational facilities.

The Arlington, Mass., school committee has rejected the 17-year-old's request to allow students to voluntarily recite the Pledge of Allegiance, because some educators are concerned that it would be hard to find teachers willing to recite it, according to a report in the Arlington Patch.

When U.S. President Barack Obama stepped off his helicopter in Huntsville on Friday, the first thing he said was, “You’ve got a lot of golf courses here, don’t you?” Industry Minister Tony Clement told the National Post in an exclusive interview.

How many more times is this man going to golf while oil is spilling, jobs are being lost, and a war is going on?!?!

Since they began making follow-up house calls in early May, census takers have encountered vitriol, menace and flashes of violence. They have been shot at with pellet guns and hit by baseball bats. They have been confronted with pickaxes, crossbows and hammers. They've had lawn mowers pushed menacingly toward them and patio tables thrown their way. They have been nibbled by ducks, bitten by pit bulls and chased by packs of snarling dogs.

"Nibbled by ducks?" Seriously? Menacing lawn mowers? Really? Chased by dogs? Isn't that a typical day for a postal worker? How can these be put in the same paragraph as "hit by baseball bats" and "confronted by pickaxes?" Sorry, you lose all credibility when you try to stretch the list with ridiculous items.

So far, the Census Bureau has tallied 379 incidents involving assaults or threats on the nation's 635,000 census workers, more than double the 181 recorded during the 2000 census. Weapons were used or threatened in a third of the cases.

Do you have any idea how few incidents that turns out to be considering how many workers there are? It amounts to an incident rate of .0006%. Did they also consider that perhaps there are more Census workers this year because of the increase in population? Never mind that 379 incidents is far less than the number of workers hired with criminal records (at least 1,800 with 750 fired). And lets take a look at recent headlines of the violence committed by census workers, the sword cuts both ways:

While the article clearly tries to make it look as though there's an epidemic of crazy anti-government American violence against Census workers, it's simply not true. I'm sure a lot of the incidents were cases of people not understanding that the strangers on their property were Census workers and not thieves. This is just another way to try to equate conservatives and libertarians who are skeptical of government with the very few people who threaten violence against the workers.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Regulations Hold Up Needed Supplies

But why aren't those larger skimmers already here, eight weeks into the disaster?

"One of the challenges we have is the regulatory scheme," said Laferriere.

A law from the 1920s called the Jones Act stands in the way, declaring that the Coast Guard has to use only American vessels.The Coast Guard ran into the same problem after Hurricane Katrina, but it took just a week to get around it.

"We had to work with the president and Adm. Allen to get the Jones Act waived," said Laferriere.

The international skimmers are now expected to arrive on the Gulf Coast in July.

Hmm, so it took President Bush a week to wave the law to help Katrina victims; the BP spill happened April 20, and the needed supplies won't arrive until July. Bush - 1 week; Obama - 2+ months. 'Nuf said.

Not only is the sound annoying, it's dangerous!

Insurance saleswoman Yvonne Mayer, 29, was unable to speak or eat for two days after ripping her windpipe when she blew the three foot horn during a street party in Cape Town.
...
Her injury came as it was revealed a German fan had been diagnosed with severe tinnitus after watching his team's 4-0 over Australia.

...

'It was so loud that I passed out. When I came round I couldn't hear properly in one ear - it was just a permanent ringing.'

Wednesday, June 02, 2010

We're heading into summer and that means Supreme Court decisions - YAY! I love Con Law. Of course there are the obligatory stupid or almost-stupid rulings every year. Here's an almost-stupid one - only one judge away from a stupid decision, via WaPo:

In the case about Miranda rights, suspect Van Chester Thompkins remained mostly silent for three hours of interrogation after reading and being told of his rights to remain silent and have an attorney. ... When asked, “Do you pray to God to forgive you for shooting that boy down?” Thompkins looked away and answered, “Yes.”

The statement was used against him, and Thompkins was convicted of killing Samuel Morris outside a strip mall in Southfield, Mich.

Um...which part of "anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law" is unclear to FOUR of our Supreme Court Justices?! Justice Kennedy gives the obvious response:

“If Thompkins wanted to remain silent, he could have said nothing in response to (the detective’s) questions, or he could have unambiguously involved his Miranda rights and ended the interrogation,” wrote Kennedy ...

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Email me if you want to be added to the blog list: Alexa at alexashrugged.com
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Disclaimer: Opinions are my own, not that of my employer.
Things to know about me and this blog:
No, I'm not obsessed with Ayn Rand, I just thought this title was cool, although I do agree with many of her ideas on liberty.
I will post whatever I feel like here, but it will mostly be links to articles I find funny, interesting, or noteworthy, that you will probably not hear about from the mainstream media (MSM).
I am socially conservative, neo-con on foreign policy, and fairly libertarian economically.